Tales of the Matrix
by Brad Redfield
Summary: An AniMatrix if you will. Some sort stories set in the Matrix universe. Enjoy!


Tale One  
  
The Second  
  
--------  
  
Name's Enwat. Enwat Shrugo. I'm an assasin for hire in the New York Area. My jobs are fast and clean, and I don't leave a trace of evidence behind. I have a humble little buisness, but I do run into snags very, very often. These snags? My company rivals for one. They are trying to kill me, or by thier point of view,"Put me out of the buisness.". Another snag would be the Agents. Oh, I guess you wouldn't know what Agents are, would you? Well, we all live inside the Matrix, a computer program that simulates our world in the year 2003. I'm a lone hacker that gets into the Matrix on his own.  
  
I was taken out by Morpheus and them, but I decided to head solo becuase team play isn't really my thing. Who's Morpheus? Well, he's a great man, and one of the leading people behind the rebellion against the machines, God bless 'em. I'm very grateful to him and his companions. Though he and the Oracle have no idea of the power that I posses. I am the Second.  
  
I am like Neo, or the One, but I only have half of his brute strength and power. I can't manipulate the Matrix like he can, but I can hold my own against the Agents. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the Agents. Gettin' old I guess. Well, they are basically the Matrix's henchmen when a hacker hacks into the Matrix, and they try to "Delete them" from the program. They are very powerful and agile, but they can't match my or the One's power.  
  
Well, enough of the boring introductions, here's my story and how I managed to save the Rebellion from certain doom without Morpheus or Neo knowing it.  
  
It all began about four weeks ago when I was finishing up a job, and I was cleaning up the place. (Very easy to hack into Matrix and unlocks doors, ya know?) Anways, like I was saying, I was cleaning the place up and I receive a phonecall on my cell. I reach into my trenchcoat pocket and pressed my hat up and pressed the device against my left ear (My right ear recieved a bullet during a skirmish with an Agent.), and a raspy voice spoke on the other end to me,"Good sir, would you happen to be Enwat Shrugo?" the voice asked with an eager tone, and I looked around to make sure no other soul was in the room. "Who want's to know?" I asked to the voice, trying to end the call as fast as I could. (The Matrix can track phonecalls made by hackers pretty damn fast.)  
  
The voice then chuckled and said,"Mr.Shrugo, we finally found you." The voice wasn't raspy but now clear and seemingly powerful. "Shit!" The Matrix had found me. I look around, and I hear a loud crash nearby in the apartment.  
  
I turn to see that two Agents had kicked the wooden door in, and their sunglasses shined in the rooms singular light. They turn their heads at the same time at me, and one smirked. "Hello Mr.Shrugo, I am Agent Quigley."  
  
I ducked as the two pulled out thier 9mms and fired. Many bullets teared up the wall behind me, and I looked up at the Agents, and smirked. "Let's dance boys." I flipped with incredibly felocity and I was over the Agents in a flash. I looked down and crushed one of them with my powerful legs and I look to my left and grab Agent Quigley's arm and break it as if it were a toothpick and I threw him over my shoulder, and out the window. "Piss off boys. I want a drink."  
  
If only I knew what was going to happen then.....  
  
I walked out the door that lead to the front of the apartment, drinking a bottle of wine as I went down the small stoop. I burped and stuffed the bottle (With a quarck in it of course.) in my trenchcoat pocket, and I headed towards my car.....that's when it happened. I felt something ram me from behind and I gave a gasp of suprise as I fell foward and I flipped in mid-air and landed on the gravel with ease. "You don't give up, do you?" I said, laughing alittle for my own stupidity of letting my guard down.  
  
"No. But we have already won the fight." said Agent Quigley, and another Agent appeared from the corner of the block, and another followed soon after. I looked behind me and there were four more Agents. Each of them cracked thier knuckles and stretched.They were getting ready to fight me. "Heh. You machines seem to have a short memory." I said with a cocky tone, and I ran foward and side-stepped with great speed and my hand took ahold of the nearby street lamp. I looked over to the Agents, and a few of them were rushing towards me and I could sense thier eagerness to take me down. I ripped the lamp from it's roots and held it with one hand with ease. One Agent lept towards me, and I slammed the metal lamp against his temple and he was gone.  
  
The next came, and I threw the lamp behind my back, killing another Agent that was trying a sneak attack. I laughed, and ducked and swerved as I dodged each of thier punches and kicks with ease. I took ahold of another by the wrist and slammed him into three others, destroying them on contact from my raw power. Then, I felt something in the back of my neck. It began as a numbness, and grew to a burning pain. I winced as the pain kept getting stronger and stronger.  
  
"Mr. Strugo, do you know that I injected you with a special virus?" asked Agent Quigley, who sat on the stoop of the apartment, and he looked at me with eager eyes. "....What?" I couldn't believe it. They got the best of me. "Yes, I now realize you are the Second. It's obvious by your peformance against my allies." he stood up and pointed out an old woman laying on the ground, dead. (Agents have to take over another's body in the Matrix.) "What's your fuggin' point? Get on with it!" I blurted out to him, the pain starting to ease a bit. "Mr.Strugo, you will help me take down the One. Do you wish to know how you will?" asked Quigley, walking slowly towards me. "That virus corrupts anything that is not programmed by the Matrix. That was the only sample we had, but thanks to your power, it will soon grow much stronger and escape from your body and be released upon the Matrix, killing those who hack into it, including the One." smiled Quigley, taking out a 9mm and pointed it at my forehead. He pulled the trigger, and I dodged it with ease. "Yes, keep using it." said Quigley, firing more shots.  
  
They had lured me into a trap. But I had an ace up my sleeve.  
  
I looked at Quigley, and at the other Agents that I had not yet defeated. I looked around my surroundings, searching for a quick and convienet route for my escape. It clicked.  
  
Three of the Agents rushed foward, thier 9mms waiting to unleash thier fury upon my body, thier thirst for blood thriving. I ducked as one fired a few shots at me, and I flipped over the nearby car with one quick sweep and I landed on the other side of it as thier bullets destoryed it's shell like if it was plastic. I saw a car across the street, it was black and sleet. My guardian angel. At that moment, the car that was my protection was crushed with a mighty kick from Quigley.  
  
I took out my keys and clicked the unlock button, the beeping was music to my ears. I stood up like lightning and casted one more look at the Agents, and I ran towards my car. I leaped and crashed through the window and retrieved my gun. I held it like an Excalibur and I let loose my own fury upon the Agents. One got a bullet to the head, but the others dodged the bullets. I forced my keys into the ignition and brought the steed to life.  
  
The car gave a mighty roar and I slammed my right foot onto the accelerator, and I escaped from the threat that were the Agents. Now, the deal with the virus. I called up my partner (She's a life saver. Really.) and she told me that there was a phonecall waiting for me at a Jazz joint. I smiled, being a huge jazz fan, but I also frowned, for this was my last run through the Matrix.  
  
After a few peaceful minutes (And the occasonal bullet hitting my car from an Agent or two.), I pulled up to the joint. I kicked the door off my car and said,"Sorry, you've been great, but this is Enwat's last." and I ran to the door of the humble building, and opened it. I ran inside as a sax played a solo, and I saw twenty Agents waiting in the audience for my last performance. I smirked, and said,"Come on boys, who's up for one last round?" with a cocky tone, and they rushed at me. I ran backwards up beside the wall next to me, and my feet made contact with the ceiling. I gracefully cartwheeled over my foes, my gun letting off bullet after bullet, while they took out thier own guns.  
  
Thier own bullets teared up the ceiling as I passed over them. A bullet hit my right shoulder, and I saw my own blood for the first time in years. But it wasn't red....it was dark green. The virus was ready to be unleashed.  
  
I heard the phone. So did the others.  
  
I looked under me, and saw a phone located in the middle of the Agents. "Shit." I mumbled, and I dropped to the floor above the phone, the Agents leaping towards and onto me and they punched and kicked with great power. I felt some of the pain, but most of my mind was focusing on getting to the phone and saving the Rebellion. My hand reached the phone, and a few bullets teared up my arm, but I didn't care. The virus kept leaking out, faster and faster, and I held the reciever to my ear. My blood shot right back into me, along with the virus. And I was gone.  
  
Now, here I am, in my ship with my wife. I saved Zion (The last remaining city for humans by the way.), and I cannot enter the Matrix again, for if I do, I'm sure the virus would be out of me and killing off my fellow rebels. So, now, I can longer help inside the Matrix. I am Enwat Shrugo.....the Second, signing out, my wife is waiting for me in bed. Peace. 


End file.
